Medical Psychiatry Units: A Delphi Consensus Approach to Defining Essential Characteristics.

Medical psychiatry units (MPUs), also known as complexity intervention units, represent an important innovation for integrating medical and behavioral health care in the hospital setting, thereby reducing the need for sequential medical and psychiatric hospitalization. As US hospitals face an increased demand for mental health services, interest in the MPU model is gaining momentum. However, there is no shared definition for what constitutes an MPU, and significant variation exists among units across the United States that have been designated as an MPU.

Specialty Psychiatric Services in US Emergency Departments and General Hospitals: Results From a Nationwide Survey.

Objective: To explore the handling of psychiatric patients in medical hospitals and emergency departments (EDs) as well as hospital characteristics associated with the availability of psychiatric services in these settings.

Methods: From October 1, 2017, to April 1, 2018, a telephone survey regarding the presence and nature of psychiatric services was attempted among all US registered Medicare hospitals.

Results: Of the included 4812 US hospitals, 2394 (50%) were surveyed.

Hospital healthcare utilizers with medical and psychiatric claims in the Netherlands: a nationwide study.

Background: Psychiatric and medical multimorbidity is associated with low quality of life, poor functioning and excess mortality. Differences in healthcare utilization between those receiving co-occurring medical and psychiatric healthcare (HUMPCs) and those only receiving medical (HUMCs) or only psychiatric healthcare (HUPCs) may indicate differences in care accessibility, help-seeking behavior and the risk patterns of medical illness. We aimed to assess the occurrence of psychiatric diagnostic groups in HUMPCs compared to HUPCs and to compare their medical and psychiatric claims expenditures.

Moving Beyond the Status Quo of Integrated Inpatient Medical and Psychiatric Care Units: The Path to Real-World Evaluation.

Integrated inpatient medical and psychiatric care units (IMPUs) are hospital wards that care for inpatients with both acute general medical and psychiatric disorders. IMPU development has stalled, and wide variation in IMPU designs may reflect the fact that IMPUs are still in an early evolutionary stage. High-quality evidence concerning the costs and effectiveness of IMPUs is sparse, because IMPUs do not lend themselves well to traditional evidence-based medicine methods.

Exploring Neurobehaviour in Zebrafish Embryos as a Screening Model for Addictiveness of Substances.

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide and is highly addictive. Nicotine is the main addictive compound in tobacco, but less is known about other components and additives that may contribute to tobacco addiction. The zebrafish embryo (ZFE) has been shown to be a good model to study the toxic effects of chemicals on the neurological system and thus may be a promising model to study behavioral markers of nicotine effects, which may be predictive for addictiveness.